Lax attitudes towards soft drugs. A government that takes great lengths to provide a strong social security net. Wooden shoes. You would think that being a punk band in the Netherlands would be like Naomi Campbell without that propensity for decking photographers at 40,000 feet (i.e., not worthy of an "Entertainment Tonight" feature story). After all, why get all worked up and subversive about a society that seems so decadently tolerant to us repressed North Americans?

To answer these questions, ladies and gentlemen, please meet Holland's favourite art-punk ensemble, the Ex. On their tenth album, Starters Alternators, these rabble- rousing veterans prove that even those happy- go- lucky Dutch can do the agit-rock thing with admirable ferocity. This is no idle dance, though. Since their inception way back in 1979, the Ex have made a point of taking punk ethics to heart. Proudly affliating themselves with European squatters movements, and loudly lambasting the Gang of Four when they signed to major label giant EMI, the Ex have always been more sincere than the baggy- pants- and- funny- sunglasses crowd.

Perhaps their adherence to their ideals is easier because of the black vs. white, us vs. them lefty polemic they so readily embrace. This sort of posturing would be insufferable if the Ex were not such an interesting band. Incorporating elements of white noise, folk, jazz and ethnic music, the band has been enormously influential to the whole Touch and Go angular punk scene. It's only fitting that this album was recorded by longtime fan and indie- snob extraordinaire, Mr. Steve Fucking Albini.

If melody's your thing, you probably won't find much of it on Starters Alternators. Above all, this album is a clinic in rhythm deconstruction. Rife with slashing guitars, chunky, distorted bass patterns and sometimes African- style drumming, the Ex brings an appropriate to the energetically yelped vocals. On tracks like "Frenzy," "Let's Panic Later" and "Two Struck By The Moon," the band make a racket that makes you want to start smashing glass objects with orgiastic glee. The album drags in places, most notably with the track "I.O.U. (Nought)," a mostly limp number where the band's experimental excesses get the best of them. Still, much of Starters Alternators is furiously good stuff, and worth the price of admission, if only to see a bunch of geezers showing up young punks with their superior pedigree.

-Samir Khan

"Let's Panic Later"

[Real Audio Stream]